Shooter in Turkey cited Subaru from Re:Zero in his manifesto

An absolute tragedy shook Turkey this April 15, 2026, and unfortunately, the world of anime has ended up being splattered by the worst possible situation. A student just 14 years old sparked panic at Ayser Çalık Middle School in what is being described as the deadliest school shooting in the country's history. The assailant, identified as İsa Aras Mersinli, was detained by school staff and a parent, later losing his life due to his injuries. But what is shaking the internet is the disturbing manifesto he left on his computer, where he dragged Re:Zero into his twisted justification for the massacre.

The disturbing manifesto and the otaku obsession

In the document written in English days before the attack, the boy vomited all his resentment against the world. He spoke of his loneliness, of feeling misunderstood by his own family, and of his deep contempt for his peers and the educational system. The detail that chilled the community's blood was when he directly compared his miserable reality to the protagonist of the anime Re:Zero, literally writing that he felt "very lonely, just like Natsuki Subaru." All this while claiming to have a superior IQ, in an evident delusion of grandeur and contradictions that attempted to justify his atrocious crime.

To top off this grim scenario, investigators found that his computer wallpaper was Konata Izumi from the classic anime Lucky Star. As expected, these details have already set off alarm bells, as traditional media always looks for the perfect excuse to blame animation or video games for real-world violence. While it is a fact that watching anime does not turn you into a criminal, the total disconnection this young man had from reality, using pop culture references to frame his tragedy, is an extremely sensitive issue that is making headlines around the world.

About Natsuki Subaru and Re:Zero

For those who need context and do not understand why the shooter used this reference, the comparison is not entirely random from the perspective of isolation. Before being transported to a brutal fantasy world, Natsuki Subaru was a hikikomori, a young man shut in his room who had stopped attending high school due to extreme social pressure, loneliness, and fear of failure. However, the real message and the character's evolution in the original work are about self-improvement, empathy, and the value of protecting others, standing as an absolute and aberrant contrast to the cowardly attack this Turkish youth perpetrated in real life.

Knowing that the media often immediately jumps to criminalize our interests, do you think the international press will take advantage of these dark mentions of Subaru and Lucky Star to start a new witch hunt against the anime community?